The Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance (CVSA) has honored a trucker with decades of experience transporting historic nuclear waste for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
On August 18, 2026, the CVSA named trucker Tommy Cash the winner of this year’s International Driver Excellence Award (IDEA).
To date, Cash has logged 3.6 million accident-free miles in his trucking career, hauling goods such as fuel, milk, refrigerated products, flatbed cargo, bulk commodities, and, most recently, radioactive waste.
“I always tell anyone who’s even thinking about becoming a truck driver: ‘What other job pays you to travel across the country? There’s nothing better than that,’” Cash said.
Cash works for CAST Specialty Transportation Inc. He is one of only 36 professional truck drivers entrusted with transporting transuranic radioactive waste from Department of Energy (DOE) facilities across the country to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), located near Carlsbad, New Mexico, for final disposal.
Cash has specialized in transporting transuranic waste generated by defense activities related to atomic energy for the past 23 years.
The CVSA highlighted the number of commercial vehicle inspections that Cash has successfully passed throughout his career as a truck driver.
“In the last three years alone, he has undergone more than 195 Level VI inspections, which involve a higher and stricter inspection standard and procedure due to the materials being transported. A Level VI inspection is conducted at the point of origin before the driver is allowed to begin the trip. The vehicle, the driver, and the cargo must be free of defects to pass the inspection and continue on their route. Over the course of his 23 years transporting radioactive waste, Cash estimates that he has successfully passed more than 1,000 CVSA Level VI inspections—an extraordinary achievement given the frequency and rigor of inspections associated with the transport of radioactive materials,” the CVSA stated.
Cash shared the following advice for other professional drivers: “Be aware not only of what’s right in front of your truck, but also of what’s ahead—further down the road—and what’s happening behind your truck.”
